The present invention is related to gangways for guiding animals in single file along a prescribed path and more particularly to such apparatus including direction restricting mechanism for allowing one-way movement of the animals along the path.
Gangways or chutes are commonly utilized in the livestock industry for directing cattle, sheep, hogs, etc. from one location to another in single file such that each animal in line may be individually treated, inspected, or loaded individually into transport vehicles.
Since large numbers of animals are often to be moved through the chute, it becomes desirable to provide some mechanism by which the animals are allowed to move only in a single forward direction. Commercially available apparatus are either manually or mechanically driven to accomplish the directional restricting function. Inadvertent or malfunctioning operation of such mechanisms can injure an animal or cause panic among the animals being driven along the path. Additionally, mechanically operable mechanisms such as are commercially available are relatively complex and expensive. Therefore, it becomes desirable to obtain a reliable safe cattle chute with integral mechanism for restricting directional movement of the animals that is simple, efficient and automatic in operation.